Lemme Take You To The Beach, Again

 

We don't really want to leave the Palazzo Conforti, but hit the road at the decent hour of noon. This gives us plenty of time for the full breakfast, a dip in the pool, a shower and a thorough repacking job. Its going to be a fairly long drive, so it's good to hit the road well rested and relaxed.

Leaving north from Casenza, we will drive across the penninsula through the Spezzano Albanese region. It gets hilly here, and there are numerous warning signs that snow chains may be necessary. As it is about 104 degrees, I don't think chains are needed. As Lorenzo is preparing to change highways, the exit is closed and we have to take a detour. The navigation unit tells us it will only add 12 minutes, but the road takes us over a mountain, followed by steep switchbacks straight down to a river bed, a real test of intestinal fortitude. Just when I think the road can't get any narrower, an 18 wheeler comes in the opposite direction, its back tires sending pebbles down the cliff.

As soon as we see the Ionian sea at Villapiano Lido, we take a much needed air, food and stretch break. From here we will follow the coastal road near the Gulf of Taranto. It's pleasant enough, water to the right, olive orchards to left. As we come into Taranto, we get some of the least appetizing smells In Italy, oil refineries, burning fields and ship yards. Taranto proper looks nice, a beautiful harbor full of yachts.

From Taranto we head due east to Lecce. I expected more hills but it's flat as a panini. Our bed and breakfast is near the coast and luckily we go there first. It's farm country outside Lecce, but most of the fields have gone to seed. We pass solar and wind farms, and their harvest is abundant. Our little entourage pulls up outside the 20ft. stone walls to a tall arched wooden door big enough to allow a tractor to pass. A discussion of the landscape brings comparisons to Kansas, Hypha, or Corpus Christi, but we agree on Tatooine.

 

Entering Masseria Ospitale, the layout is hacienda style with a big open patio area, surrounded by rooms on two levels. I'm fairly sure the building used to be a working farm, with rooms for the family, workers and farm equipment. Behind the stone walls, the former bunk houses have been converted to suites, small apartments or hostel type multi cot rooms. The stark block structures have been augmented with geodesic half domes, creating a covered seating areas in the central patio and outside the dining room. Overall, it is quite beautiful in a stark way.

 

A beach area, Torre Chianca is about 3 km from our hotel, so we get our swim suits on head over at about 5:30. It's late in the day but the parking areas are full, as is the beach. It's a nice stretch of soft, white sand. The water is perfect temperature and completely flat. I've heard they surf here in the fall and spring, but right now, its as surfable as a toddler pool. About as deep, too. It's waist deep 100s of meters out.

While we were at the beach, Lorenzo got a call from a journalist checking facts for a story about the shut down of the festival in Cosenza. The police are saying they only asked that the volume be reduced, and that the festival organizers shut it down because they didn't want to pay the bands. This is completely false, they paid us in full, paid for our dinner and hotel stay.

After showers at the B&B, we drove into Lecce. Obviously the streets flow in a circuitous pattern around the old city center, and we drive around and around until we can get into the inside loop where the bar is. Molly Malone is obviously going to be some kind of Irish bar, and when I walk in, I feel like I'm back on Geary Street in San Francisco, as dark cherry wood paneling and booths surround me, Guiness, Harp and other Irish ales on tap. The other thing I notice is that the place is tiny, no place for a band. Tobia, the owner arrives and says we will play outside on the street corner, and given the heat, this is not a problem.

They let us order whatever we want off the menu. It seems that everything has a different name than other parts of the country, but the ingredients are the same. The special here is piadine, which uses a large flour tortilla folded in half, basically a quesadilla. After dinner, we walk up the street for a gelato, and just when I think life can't get any richer, this ciocolatte and cafe mix makes my back teeth spin.

 

It's beautiful out tonight and there is a lot of foot traffic around Molly Malone. All the bands get a great reaction and the crowd grows as the night goes on. At 12:30, when Meshugga finishes, the crowd is spilling out into the street, blocking traffic, horns are blaring. Sorry, nothing to report about Lecce, it looks like a great place to walk around but we didn't have time.